Looking at today’s mobile landscape, it pretty much looks like a two-way battle between platforms offered up by Google Inc. (Android) and Apple Inc. (iOS) with BlackBerry a fading third place. So why do analysts predict Microsoft will rise up into second place by 2015?
Canadian and former Microsoft executive Stephen Elop, now CEO of Nokia, announced a partnership with Microsoft Corp. to put Windows Phone 7 on all its smart phone devices. That suddenly gave the OS a huge hardware footprint from an experienced mobile device maker. Now consultant firms like Gartner Inc. and IDC Corp. are predicting that Microsoft’s OS will claim the same portion of the market that Nokia’s Symbian OS currently holds – just under 20 per cent.
Here’s a video recapping the Noka-Microsoft alliance from Feb. 11: